| Trump Must Not Break His Promises to Gun-Rights Supporters Posted: 16 Aug 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Following the model of George H. W. Bush, Donald Trump is taking a major step toward becoming a one-term president. Bush thought he could become more popular by betraying his promises to defend the Second Amendment. Trump now feels the same; according to the New York Times, he has ordered his staff to work with Senate Republicans to pass a major gun-control package that would set the stage for gun confiscation. Bush's Good Talk and Hostile Action Let's remember how gun control worked out for George H. W. Bush. Like Trump, Bush had a long record of supporting some gun control; that record was part of the reason he lost the Texas Senate race in 1970 and the presidential primaries in 1980. Also as with Trump, the campaign that won Bush the presidency was strongly pro–Second Amendment: Shortly before running for president in 1988, Bush joined the NRA. His acceptance speech at the Republican Convention touted his devotion to gun rights. In a September 1988 public letter to the NRA, he promised to oppose gun bans and other forms of gun control.Bush won the general election in a landslide against the inept Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis, who as governor of Massachusetts had declared that only the police and military should have guns. Bush's victory margin was so large that the pro–Second Amendment vote was not essential. Gun voters did, however, amplify Bush's win by carrying him to victory in states such as Pennsylvania, Montana, and Maryland.Bush's campaign promises apparently meant little to him. A few weeks into the Bush presidency, the administration was set back on its heels by the Senate's rejection of Secretary of Defense John Tower. Some conservative activists had raised concerns that Tower had a drinking problem, and that was the end of the nomination. So the White House cast about for what they thought would be a popular issue, and they chose gun control.In Stockton, Calif., a seriously mentally ill career criminal had murdered elementary-school children in a schoolyard. If California had had a functional criminal-justice system, the criminal would have been behind bars and receiving mental-health treatment.Bush denounced what he called "automated attack weapons" — that is, guns with a military appearance. Although the guns looked like machine guns, they functioned differently, with a much slower rate of fire — the same rate as common handguns. But Bush couldn't be bothered to know the difference between reality and appearance, and neither could many other politicians and the media. The same is true today.Using administrative authority, Bush banned the import of so-called "assault weapons" — almost all of which actually had well-established use in hunting and target shooting. In the courts, the Bush administration's lawyers insisted that individuals had no Second Amendment rights. Bush's Department of Housing and Urban Development urged local public-housing authorities to prohibit tenants from owning firearms in their homes. Bush promoted an early version of what would later become the 1994 Clinton-Biden crime bill, including a ban on many ordinary firearms. The leading Republican supporter was South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond, the longtime segregationist and opponent of civil liberties.In 1991, Bush soared to 89 percent popularity after winning the First Gulf War against Iraq's Saddam Hussein. (At the time, few people realized that Bush's decision to let the tyrant stay in power would set the stage for more terrorism and another war.) Yet Bush had few accomplishments on the domestic side. He had already violated his "read my lips: no new taxes" pledge — and was perhaps surprised to find that the people who hated him before he broke his promise hated him just as much afterwards.In search of a domestic accomplishment, Bush again proposed a grand bargain: He would sign a crime bill with gun control if the bill would also eliminate the exclusionary rule for firearms seized as evidence. That rule, created by Supreme Court decisions starting in 1914, prevents the courtroom use of evidence that is obtained through illegal police conduct. The Bush proposal would have allowed government agents to break into someone's home with no warrant, no probable cause, and no exigent circumstances, ransack the home to look for a gun, and then use evidence of the seizure in court against the individual. Too bad for the Fourth Amendment.Perhaps Bush's opposition to judicial controls on law-enforcement misconduct was not surprising. Under his administration, federal law-enforcement agencies — including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms -- had become notorious for legally unjustifiable and excessive violence, often with deadly consequences for the victims. Then as now, most federal agents were decent people, but the Bush administration from the top down encouraged the recklessly violent ones.In September 1992, the National Rifle Association declined to endorse Bush for reelection. Instead, the association concentrated its resources on candidates in other races who had kept their promises. Bush lost handily to Arkansas governor Bill Clinton, in part because Bush's conservative base had realized that while Bush talked like a Texan, he governed like a northeastern aristocrat.The Clinton administration did everything it could to promote gun control, including winning enactment of a gun ban as part of its 1994 crime bill. (The one that most Democratic presidential candidates today accurately denounce as a disaster for civil rights.)Clinton's overreach on guns played a major role in flipping control of the House and Senate in the 1994 elections, electing the most pro-gun Congress since the early 1920s. As this experience showed, it's better to be under frontal attack from an overt enemy than to be stabbed in the back by a purported ally. Trump's Good Talk and Planned Actions Trump's embrace of the Bush model is reported to include support of the Toomey-Manchin bill from 2013. The bill would forbid individuals to sell firearms to each other if the sales took place at a gun show or were advertised publicly; instead, the sellers would have to use gun stores as middlemen. As federally licensed retailers, gun stores must keep records on firearms transactions, and they contact the FBI or its state counterpart for a background check on buyers. All this has nothing to do with reducing mass shootings. From the Aurora theater to Newtown to Las Vegas, the guns used by mass shooters are overwhelmingly acquired by persons who passed background checks, or who could have passed any proposed system of checks. In a few cases, such as the shooting at Sutherland Springs, Texas, the criminal should have been stopped by the existing background-check system but wasn't, because the relevant conviction had not been reported to the FBI's National Instant Check System. Since 2008, Congress has enacted a variety of laws to address the problem of incomplete data.Like Bush and Clinton, Trump is determined to "do something" — even if that something is useless when it comes to preventing mass shootings. A RAND Corporation study evaluated different gun-control laws. According to RAND, which can hardly be accused of being "pro-gun," the social-science evidence does not provide even "limited" support for background checks, "assault weapon" bans, or other gun control having any effect on mass shootings.The Toomey-Manchin bill was promoted with the sweetener that it would toughen the existing ban on a federal gun registry and would improve the laws protecting the interstate transportation of firearms. In fact, close reading of the bill showed that it expressly authorized a vast amount of new gun registration and gutted the existing protections for interstate transport for persons who travel to the most restrictive states, such as New York, New Jersey, and Massaschusetts. It would have vastly increased data collection and retention on law-abiding gun owners.As the Obama administration's Department of Justice admitted in a 2013 memo, "universal background check" laws are unenforceable without gun registration. Retail gun sales are already registered via record-keeping by the retailer. When a dealer retires, all of his registration records must be delivered to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, where they are digitized. (ATF is currently not supposed to make its database searchable by the purchaser's name.) The purpose of the background-check laws being pushed in Congress and the states is to expand registration by requiring the use of gun stores as intermediaries for transfers between private individuals — even loaning your shotgun to your cousin for a week.Centralizing registration will be a future demand of the gun-prohibition lobby after Trump surrenders to the current demands. That is what has been enacted in California, where the government now has a comprehensive list of almost all gun owners and their particular firearms — thanks to records created for "universal background checks."Once there is registration, the next step is confiscation. Since 1967, all firearms in New York City have been centrally registered. Starting with mayor David Dinkins in the 1980s and continuing ever since, including under the regime of Michael Bloomberg, the registration lists have been used for confiscation, as more and more once-legal guns have been outlawed by the city council or the legislature.The New York City Administrative Code explains the process in section 10-303.1. When the city council decides that something is an "assault weapon" (a definition that has repeatedly expanded), the police are supposed to mail a notice to the licensed owner of the registered gun. The owner has two choices: 1. "peaceably surrender his or her assault weapon" to the police commissioner, who may destroy it or keep it for police-department use; 2. "lawfully remove such assault weapon from the city of New York."After the confiscation process for "assault weapons" was established, a slow-motion confiscation was introduced for more firearms. According to section 10-306, it is illegal in New York to acquire a rifle of shotgun with an ammunition capacity of more than five. Existing registered owners may keep theirs, but may not pass them on to heirs. The only dispositions allowed are surrender to the police, removal from the city, or sale to a licensed firearms dealer.Central registration lists have likewise been used for confiscation in Australia and the United Kingdom, both touted as models by American gun-control advocates. Laws to Reduce Mass Shootings Red-flag laws could stop mass shootings at least occasionally, which is why I testified in favor of such laws before the Senate Judiciary Committee last March. But unless the laws have very strong due-process protections (which the bills being pushed by the gun-control lobbies do not), these laws are easy to abuse. Trump himself demonstrated the problem by claiming that CNN host Christopher Cuomo should be prohibited from owning guns because Cuomo lost his temper and yelled at a lout who was harassing him and his family at a restaurant.Donald Trump did once propose something that would greatly reduce mass shootings. "I will get rid of gun-free zones," he promised over and over when addressing the NRA annual meeting in 2016. During the campaign he also promised, "I will get rid of gun-free zones in schools, and — you have to — and on military bases. My first day, it gets signed, okay? My first day. There's no more gun-free zones."Actually, he did nothing on the first day, and very little since then — not even on federal property, where many of the gun-free zones could be ended by executive-branch regulatory changes.The Army Corps of Engineers owns millions of acres of recreational land, and the corps' regulations ban Americans from possessing defensive arms while visiting or camping on that land. Just before the Ninth Circuit was slated to hear oral arguments in a constitutional challenge to that ban, the Trump administration told the court that the administration was considering changing the regulation. But the regulation was never changed. Instead, the Trump administration issued guidance to citizens to request written individual permission from a district commander to possess a defensive arm.The gap between Trump's promises and actions is unfortunate, because the vast majority of mass shootings take place in so-called gun-free zones. As studies of active-shooter incidents show beyond doubt, killing sprees almost always end when the people starting shooting back at the criminal. If law enforcement or security guards are already there, that's good. But the police cannot be everywhere at once, and the minutes that it takes for the police to arrive are the criminals' window of time for murder.Unlike Trump, President Obama actually did get rid of some gun-free zones. In 2009, Obama signed legislation to allow persons to carry arms on the lands (though not buildings) of national parks, national monuments, and national wildlife refuges when in compliance with the host state's laws for lawful carry. The carry reform was attached to a bill on credit-card reform that Obama favored. Additionally, Obama signed defense-appropriations bills that ended gun registration for military personnel in off-base housing and that allowed licensed handgun carry on-base by some personnel.Ever since 2015, Trump has always talked big about this support for gun rights. He has one major accomplishment: unsigning the U.N. gun-control treaty that Obama had signed in 2013. He also signed a bill in early 2017 that blocked proposed Obama gun-control regulations.Gun-rights activists might tolerate Trump's very high ratio of talk to action. But they won't tolerate him switching sides. Arrogance and Ignorance Donald Trump has flirted with the Bush model before, endorsing gun control in a February 2018 meeting with Senators Feinstein and Schumer. But Trump quickly pulled back. Now he seems more determined, apparently believing that the NRA, which is embroiled in internal conflicts and lawsuits over management issues, is too weak to stop him. Like many New Yorkers, Trump does not realize that the NRA itself is a consequence of American gun culture. If the NRA disappeared tomorrow, American gun owners would spontaneously self-organize in defense of their rights. The same is true for the pro-life movement, the environmental movement, and many others. Strike down their national organizations, and thousands of grassroots organizations will arise to take their place.The same is not true for the anti-gun movement. There has always been a hard core of anti-gun extremists, exemplified by the 20 percent of persons in opinion polls who want to ban all handguns. But the anti-gun grassroots never did spontaneously self-organize to any significant degree. Today, that doesn't matter, since anti-gunners are now organized by the best professional organizers that money can buy, thanks to Michael Bloomberg and other malefactors of great wealth. This creates the impression among some politicians that the anti-gun movement is larger than ever before, in terms of voting support. This is not true, but the anti-gunners are now much more visible.Trump imagines that he will win reelection because the other party's nominee will be so extreme. He should ask Jimmy Carter about that one. In 1980, Ronald Reagan's ideas were indeed far from the center of gravity of American politics. But the American people were tired of Carter's weakness, indecisiveness, and incompetence, and by a landslide they decided to give the opposing candidate a chance.Trump's personal flaws are different from Carter's, but more visible. In childish and unpresidential public behavior he far exceeds the previous record-holder, Bill Clinton.For over three decades I have been in close contact with grassroots gun-rights activists. In 2016 there were a few such activists who genuinely liked Trump; the vast majority viewed him with disgust, based on his character. Yet these same activists worked relentlessly to get gun owners to the polls and thereby carried Trump to narrow victories in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. If Trump follows through on his plans to betray them, they won't forgive and they won't forget.
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| Mom aims head-on at a tanker to kill herself, sons. When truck dodges, she doubles back Posted: 17 Aug 2019 02:25 PM PDT  Police say a Gainesville, Florida, mom of two young boys told a friend she was going to kill herself and her sons by crashing her car with everyone inside.
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| 'Explosive' situation on migrant rescue boat in limbo off Italy Posted: 16 Aug 2019 03:05 PM PDT  The captain of a Spanish charity ship carrying 134 rescued migrants warned Friday of an "explosive" situation on board the vessel anchored within swimming distance of Italy's Lampedusa island but forbidden to approach. Italy has evacuated a handful of people from the Open Arms ship for medical treatment but far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini refuses to allow the vessel to dock despite other European countries agreeing to take in the people on board. The captain of the ship operated by Proactiva Open Arms, Marc Reig, said the migrants, rescued after leaving chaos-stricken Libya, were "broken psychologically".
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| Gingrich on Tlaib visiting Israel, Trump's New Hampshire rally, 2020 Democrat polls Posted: 16 Aug 2019 04:26 AM PDT  Former House speaker and Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich talks the news of the day on 'Fox & Friends.'
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| Mexico to deport U.S. citizen suspected of supporting 'violent jihad' Posted: 16 Aug 2019 12:15 PM PDT ![Mexico to deport U.S. citizen suspected of supporting 'violent jihad']( "Mexico to deport U.S. citizen suspected of supporting 'violent jihad'") Mexican authorities arrested a U.S. citizen suspected of supporting militant Islamists in an example of Mexico's security cooperation with the United States even as the two neighbors grapple with sharp disagreements over trade and migration. The unidentified American man sought by Interpol was under investigation for supporting terrorist groups and will be deported to the United States later on Friday, the Mexico's attorney general's office said in a statement. The man was detained at a migrants office near Mexico's border with Guatemala in the town of Huehuetan with the help of officials from Mexico's National Migration Institute.
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| Jeffrey Epstein investigators remain puzzled by his apparent suicide days later Posted: 16 Aug 2019 09:10 AM PDT  Jeffrey Epstein's apparent suicide in a New York City jail cell has left federal investigators with more questions than answers about how the accused child sex trafficker managed to seemingly escape facing justice one final time. The federal Bureau of Prisons has attempted to understand in recent days how Epstein managed to take his own life at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre, despite guards being assigned to check his cell every 30 minutes. Officials are also working to learn why Epstein's cellmate was moved out of their cell the day before the disgraced financier was found unresponsive on Saturday morning and later pronounced dead. Attorney General William Barr has described "serious irregularities" at the prison where Epstein was held and reports have suggested the guards watching over him fell asleep for about three hours at the time of his death. But the Justice Department has not released additional details about the missteps that led to his death before he was set to stand trial over new trafficking and conspiracy charges. The department's Inspector General has launched an investigation into the death, along with the FBI. The lack of details has led to an emergence of unfounded conspiracy theories alleging Epstein was killed by the "deep state," or that the multi-millionaire fled to a secretive island and was replaced by a body-double. Those claims were given a megaphone by the White House when Donald Trump retweeted posts on Twitter suggesting there was a link between Epstein's death and Bill Clinton. Still, investigators remained focused on discovering the most rudimentary facts surrounding his apparent suicide, CNN reported on Friday.That includes a question of whether a prison staff member first found Epstein unresponsive while delivering breakfast to the prisoners, or if someone was already providing aid when he was discovered. The Bureau also wants to know whether the guards documented their checks during the time of Epstein's death, the outlet reported, and whether there is surveillance footage from inside the jail that matches those logs.There are other confounding factors to Epstein's death that may add fuel to the fire of conspiracy theories that has already been stoked by the president, including that his cellmate was moved out of their shared space a day before his death. He had also reportedly been found unresponsive weeks earlier after an apparent suicide attempt and was placed on suicide watch. The New York Medical Examiner's Office has not yet released its comprehensive autopsy results, and did not return requests for comment.However, Epstein was no longer on suicide watch at the time of his death, according to officials. The Bureau reportedly believed he had faked the initial suicide attempt.Members of Congress have requested details into the Justice Department's handling of Epstein's death and provided the department with a deadline of next week.
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| 2020 Vision: Trump gets surprise Log Cabin Republicans endorsement Posted: 16 Aug 2019 11:23 AM PDT  During the 2016 election the conservative LGBT organization declined to endorse him for president.
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| Kazakhstan court frees anti-Beijing activist Posted: 16 Aug 2019 04:24 PM PDT  A rights activist in Kazakhstan who faced seven years imprisonment over his outspoken opposition to neighbouring China was unexpectedly freed Friday as public and international pressure over his case mounted. Serikjan Bilash, whose activism in defence of Muslim and Turkic minorities in Xinjiang earned him global media attention, told AFP he struck a plea bargain with the court that allowed him freedom but will end his activism. "I had to end my activism against China.
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| Cathay CEO resigns amid Hong Kong protest blowback as more rallies planned Posted: 15 Aug 2019 08:40 PM PDT  The boss of Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific Airways quit on Friday, the highest-profile corporate casualty of unrest roiling the former British colony, after Beijing targeted the airline over staff involvement in mass protests. Demonstrators say they are fighting the erosion of the "one country, two systems" arrangement that has enshrined some autonomy for Hong Kong since China took it back from Britain in 1997. Several thousand protesters gathered peacefully at a downtown park on Friday for the "Stand with Hong Kong, Power to the People" rally, which had received police permission.
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| Tlaib Cancels Trip After Israel Says She Can Come Visit Grandmother Posted: 16 Aug 2019 06:28 AM PDT  Rebecca Cook/ReutersRep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has decided to cancel her trip to Israel—hours after being granted permission by Benjamin Netanyahu's government to enter the country to visit her elderly grandmother. "When I won, it gave the Palestinian people hope that someone will finally speak the truth about the inhumane conditions," she tweeted Friday morning. "I can't allow the State of Israel to take away that light by humiliating me & use my love for my city to bow down to their oppressive & racist policies."Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) had both been denied access to enter Israel under pressure from President Donald Trump, who suggested Thursday that the Israeli prime minister would appear "weak" if he allowed the congresswomen to visit. Friday morning, Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri then backtracked on the ban after Tlaib wrote a letter asking that she be let in to see her grandmother, who is in her nineties. "This could be my last opportunity to see her," Tlaib wrote, according to a copy of the letter published in Israeli media. "I will respect any restrictions and will not promote boycotts against Israel during my visit."Then, hours later, she reconsidered, tweeting that her grandmother would in fact not want her to visit under the conditions laid out. It is unclear if Israel sent guidelines to the Democratic representative that have not yet been made public. "Silencing me & treating me like a criminal is not what she wants for me," Tlaib tweeted as part of a thread explaining her decision not to go. "It would kill a piece of me. I have decided that visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in—fighting against racism, oppression & injustice."After the congresswoman's turnabout Friday morning, Deri blasted her decision in a tweet: "I authorized this humanitarian trip, but it turns out that it was a provocation to embarrass Israel. Her hatred for Israel overcomes her love for her grandmother."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Claims: Migrant children molested in U.S.-funded foster care Posted: 16 Aug 2019 03:11 PM PDT  This story is part of an ongoing joint investigation between The Associated Press and the PBS series FRONTLINE on the treatment of migrant children, which includes an upcoming film. Dozens of families separated at the border as part of the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy are preparing to sue the federal government, including several who say their young children were sexually, physically or emotionally abused in federally funded foster care. A review of 38 legal claims obtained by The Associated Press — some of which have never been made public — shows taxpayers could be on the hook for more than $200 million in damages.
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| Shell workers in Pennsylvania say they were told to either attend a recent Trump event, or not get paid Posted: 17 Aug 2019 09:10 AM PDT  Workers at a new Shell plant in Pennsylvania were told they had to attend a speech by President Donald Trump in order to get paid.
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| How Kamala Harris was shaped by 'the People's Republic of Berkeley' Posted: 16 Aug 2019 11:23 AM PDT  Kamala Harris grew up in the radical environs of Berkeley and spent her childhood at marches and protests with her parents. But she went to law school and became a prosecutor, an unexpected career choice that she has to explain — and defend — to Democratic voters as she seeks the presidency.
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| 70-year-old New Jersey woman accused of attempted murder after husband stabbed Posted: 16 Aug 2019 10:44 AM PDT  Police in New Jersey have arrested a 70-year-old woman on multiple charges -- including attempted murder -- in the stabbing of her husband.
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| Smiling cops take selfie near where dead baby was just found. Missouri city apologizes Posted: 17 Aug 2019 05:09 AM PDT  "The photos were by no means meant to take away from the extremely serious nature of the incident," city officials say.
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| EXCLUSIVE-China-owned oil tanker changes name in apparent effort to evade U.S. sanctions Posted: 16 Aug 2019 03:40 AM PDT ![EXCLUSIVE-China-owned oil tanker changes name in apparent effort to evade U.S. sanctions]( "EXCLUSIVE-China-owned oil tanker changes name in apparent effort to evade U.S. sanctions") SINGAPORE/KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 (Reuters) - While in the Indian Ocean heading toward the Strait of Malacca, the very large crude carrier (VLCC) Pacific Bravo went dark on June 5, shutting off the transponder that signals its position and direction to other ships, ship-tracking data showed. A U.S. government official had warned ports in Asia not to allow the ship to dock, saying it was carrying Iranian crude in violation of U.S. economic sanctions. A VLCC typically transports about 2 million barrels of oil, worth about $120 million at current prices.
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| Yemen rebel drone attack targets remote Saudi oil field Posted: 17 Aug 2019 10:04 AM PDT  Drones launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked a massive oil and gas field deep inside Saudi Arabia's sprawling desert on Saturday, causing what the kingdom described as a "limited fire" in the second such recent attack on its crucial energy industry. The attack on the Shaybah oil field, which produces some 1 million barrels of crude oil a day near the kingdom's border with the United Arab Emirates, again shows the reach of the Houthis' drone program. Shaybah sits some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from Houthi-controlled territory, underscoring the rebels' ability to now strike at both nations, which are mired in Yemen's yearslong war.
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| 'A new Hawaiian Renaissance': how a telescope protest became a movement Posted: 16 Aug 2019 10:30 PM PDT  Demonstrators opposed to the building of a telescope on Mauna Kea, the state's highest peak, have forged a communityThe actor Jason Momoa exchanges a traditional greeting with an elder while visiting protesters last month. Photograph: Hollyn Johnson/APOn Hawaii's Big Island, a protest against a $1.4bn observatory on Mauna Kea, a mountain considered sacred by many Native Hawaiians, is entering a second month. In that time, the protest site has swelled from a few hundred to several thousands, attracted celebrity visitors, and built a community of Native Hawaiians who see it as a pivotal moment.The protest site sits at an elevation of 6,632ft, where the cold wind whips across hardened lava fields. But amid this inhospitable environment, weeks of demonstration have given rise to a sense of permanence.The site stretches across a two-lane highway, where trucks flying a Native Hawaiian flag and the upside-down state flag line both sides of the road. A "Kūpuna tent", where the elders of the community gather, is strategically placed to block an access road up the mountain in order to stop construction vehicles from reaching the summit.New arrivals are encouraged to sign in at an orientation station. There is a tented cafeteria providing free meals, and a community-run medic station, daycare and school. Along the barren roadside, tropical flowers have been casually stuck in traffic cones. People pound taro, a Hawaiian crop, in the traditional way on wooden boards to make poi, a local dish.The protest stems from controversy over the fate of Mauna Kea, the tallest peak in Hawaii and the proposed site of an enormous observatory known as the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). The summit, 13,796ft above sea level, is said to be an ideal location to look into deep space. TMT is expected to capture images 'that look back to the beginning of the universe. Protesters, who call themselves kia'i, or "protectors", argue the construction will further desecrate Mauna Kea, which is already home to about a dozen telescopes.The sun sets behind telescopes at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Photograph: Caleb Jones/APKealoha Pisciotta, one of the protest leaders and a spokesperson for Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, a Native Hawaiian group, says the movement is "pushing back on corporate culture" through Hawaiian concepts of "Kapu Aloha", which emphasizes compassionate responses, especially towards opponents, and "Aloha ʻĀina", a saying that translates to "love of the land"."We are just joining the world's indigenous movements," Pisciotta says. "We need Kapu Aloha ... to bring back the balance from the insanity and destruction of our earth."Pisciotta said that the protesters were showing the world a way "to really live differently" while protecting the land."For Native Hawaiians, there is a question of our right to self-determination as defined by international law, but I think it's so much bigger than that," said Pisciotta. "It's about us learning to live and be interdependent." Why are the protests happening?Protesters continue their vigil, on 19 July. Photograph: Bruce Asato/APHawaiians consider Mauna Kea sacred for numerous reasons. The mountain is known as the home to Wākea, the sky god, who partnered with Papahānaumoku, the earth goddess. Protesters hope to protect and help restore the native ecosystem on Mauna Kea.But the protests are also part of a legacy for Native Hawaiians that goes back to 1893, when the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown. Hawaiians lost their land as well as their culture, as the latter was suppressed through law and religion. It wasn't until the 1970s, during a period of cultural flourishing known as the Hawaiian Renaissance, that the Hawaiian language was allowed to be spoken in school and that the hula was revived.The period was defined by its own resistance movement, as activists focused on stopping the US military from using Kahoʻolawe, one of the eight main Hawaiian Islands, as a target for bombing practice. After more than a decade of peaceful protests and occupations of the island, the US government ended the live-fire training in the 1990s.Some see the latest protest action as a new Hawaiian Renaissance. Days are punctuated by the blowing of the conch shell to announce ceremonies that include chanting, hula, and hoʻokupu (offerings). Several celebrities with Hawaii ties have travelled here to participate, including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jason Momoa, and Jack Johnson.Hawaii's governor, David Ige, right, watches a performance during a visit to the ninth day of protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope, on 23 July. Photograph: Jamm Aquino/AP"The atmosphere here is incredible. We're all here protecting our ʻāina [land]", said Kamuela Park, a protester at the site. He added that it had been "awesome to see people from all spectrums coming here in support".Peaceful demonstrators have faced one major confrontation with police. Three days into the protest, 38 kūpuna (revered elders) were arrested for blocking the road that leads to the construction site. That same day, Hawaii's governor, David Ige, signed an emergency proclamation giving law enforcement more control over the area and allowed them to bring in National Guard troops. Images of the elderly being arrested quickly spread, garnering sympathy for the movement and attracting more people to the site. What comes next?Demonstrators block a road at the base of Hawaii's tallest mountain, on 15 July. Photograph: Caleb Jones/APNegotiations between government officials and protesters have slowed since the arrests. On 30 July, the governor rescinded his emergency proclamation. He also extended the window during which construction could begin from 60 days to two years, meaning the protesters would theoretically need to block the road until September 2021."I want to assure everyone that we are committed. Our law enforcement officers will remain at the site to ensure the safety of all of those involved," said Ige at a press conference. "We continue to seek and find a peaceful solution to move this project forward."While tensions may have eased, protesters have said they will stay until they stop TMT from being built. Demonstrators proved their endurance in early August as many of them stayed at the protest site while two consecutive storms passed by the islands.Pisciotta, who used to work at the Mauna Kea observatories as a telescope systems specialist, says the movement has been especially "huge" for young people."Some of the elders, they lived through the time it was prohibited to speak the language," she says. Now younger Hawaiians grow up speaking it in school and with strong cultural affiliations. Hawaiian youth who are camping out are helping to organize donations, teaching some of the courses at the community-led school, and spreading the word on social media."In our philosophy, the land and the people are one," said Pisciotta, about Aloha ʻĀina. "So it was a rallying point for the renaissance and now this is a kind of new renaissance."
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| Trump to drop out of 2020 race within months, former aide Scaramucci claims Posted: 17 Aug 2019 07:23 AM PDT  Donald Trump will quit the 2020 race and not seek re-election, according to a former top aide.Anthony Scaramucci, the short-lived White House communications director, said the president will likelu quit the race in March to avoid the humiliation of defeat."He's gonna drop out of the race because it's gonna become very clear. Okay, it'll be March of 2020. He'll likely drop out by March of 2020. It's gonna become very clear that it's impossible for him to win," he said in an interview with Vanity Fair."He's got the self-worth in terms of his self-esteem of a small pigeon. It's a very small pigeon. And so you think this guy's gonna look at those poll numbers and say — he's not gonna be able to handle that humiliation."He also encouraged a primary challenger to take on Mr Trump, using a Game of Thrones analogy to make his case. "You know, this is like 'Game of Thrones.' We need an Arya Stark, okay? We gotta take this guy out because this is like the Night King."The minute the Night King is vaporised, all the zombies are gonna fall by the wayside, right? We had the Wicked Witch of the West, but he is the Wicked Witch of the West Wing. We gotta get some water thrown on him. He'll start melting."In recent weeks, Scaramucci has escalated the feud with his old boss, saying Mr Trump would eventually "turn" on the "entire country", and likening him to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.He also claimed this week that Twitter temporarily locked him out of his account after he called Mr Trump "the fattest president" after the president fat-shamed a protester.Mr Trump has previously hit back at Scaramucci, saying he was "incapable" of handling his White House role - which lasted just a few days - and would "do anything to come back in".
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| Client says Arizona massage therapist's 'cuddling' session turned sexual Posted: 17 Aug 2019 03:56 PM PDT  A Phoenix woman's complaint says a "cuddling" session with a massage therapist turned sexual.
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| Store clerk found guilty of murder for chasing, fatally shooting teen who stole $2 drink Posted: 16 Aug 2019 09:15 AM PDT  The former convenience store employee was accused of gunning down a teenager that stole a beer from a Tennessee convenience store.
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| Afghan palace emerges from ruins as centenary nears Posted: 16 Aug 2019 02:29 PM PDT  Inside an imposing building in Kabul, a team of welders hastily fuse a sweeping metal bannister to a grand staircase. With questions looming over Afghanistan's future and a possible deal between the US and the Taliban imminent, the war-torn nation is this month hoping to briefly celebrate its past -- and Darulaman will be the centrepiece. Work at the famed palace must be completed by August 19, the date marking 100 years of Afghan independence from Britain, when President Ashraf Ghani will inaugurate the newly renovated structure.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Drako GTE Posted: 16 Aug 2019 11:50 AM PDT |
| The Latest: All tourists return to Denali entrance safely Posted: 17 Aug 2019 07:58 AM PDT  About 300 tourists have been all safely returned to Alaska's Denali National Park entrance after they became stranded when a mudslide damaged the only road inside the vast park. Park spokesman Paul Ollig tells The Associated Press that all the stranded tourists were back at the entrance by midnight. The tourists became stranded Friday after heavy rains triggered mudslides and caused excess water from a culvert to damage the road.
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| Several injured in Kashmir in clashes with Indian police Posted: 17 Aug 2019 04:59 AM PDT  Indian security forces injured at least six people on Saturday in Srinagar, the main city in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, as several protests broke out against New Delhi's revocation of the region's autonomy last week. In New York, the U.N. Security Council held its first meeting in almost 50 years on Kashmir, a majority Muslim region claimed by both India and Pakistan - which controls its western third. Two police officials and eyewitnesses said clashes had begun on Friday evening.
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| X-Ray Scans Uncover da Vinci's Hidden Painting in All Its Glory Posted: 16 Aug 2019 06:30 AM PDT  The breakthrough confirm's Leonardo's legacy: "Always adjusting, always seeking more."
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| Portland: Bear spray, shields, metal poles seized at Oregon protests Posted: 17 Aug 2019 02:55 PM PDT  Right-wing groups and counterprotesters gathered in downtown Portland, Oregon, on Saturday and authorities set up concrete barriers and closed streets in an effort to contain the groups.
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| All The Most Delicious Ways To Use Up Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Posted: 16 Aug 2019 07:28 AM PDT |
| ‘A good 100 kills would be nice.’ Another Florida man arrested for mass shooting threats Posted: 17 Aug 2019 11:48 AM PDT  In the weeks following the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, Florida has seen a fair share of mass shooting threats — from Walmarts to schools.
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| Shiite cleric returns to Nigeria after India medical row Posted: 16 Aug 2019 08:38 AM PDT  Shiite leader Ibrahim Zakzaky, who was granted permission to travel to India for medical care after years in detention, returned to Nigeria on Friday following a row over his treatment, his supporters said. Zakzaky, founder of the pro-Iranian Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), and his wife Zeenah Ibrahim were "whisked away by security agents" to avoid waiting media after touching down at the airport in the capital Abuja, group member Abdurrahman Abubakar told AFP. The cleric had been in custody in Nigeria along with his wife since December 2015 after they were arrested during violence in which the army killed some 350 of his followers and buried many in mass graves.
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| 4.2 magnitude earthquake rattles Kansas; other states possibly affected Posted: 16 Aug 2019 09:55 AM PDT  A 4.2 magnitude earthquake shook portions of Kansas on Friday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The center of the quake was roughly 3 miles from Hutchinson.
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| The Latest: Reporter ID'd in New Orleans small plane crash Posted: 16 Aug 2019 05:30 PM PDT  A New Orleans TV journalist and the pilot of a small plane are dead after their aircraft went down in a field near a city airport. WVUE-TV confirms that Nancy Parker, a reporter and anchor at the television station for 23 years, was killed in the crash Friday afternoon near Lakefront Airport. A Federal Aviation Administration statement says the plane was a 1983 Pitts S-2B aircraft that it crashed about a half mile south of the airport under unknown circumstances.
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| Unprecedented heatwave 'kills thousands of fish' in Alaska Posted: 17 Aug 2019 04:52 AM PDT  Climate change and warming rivers may have caused the mass death of salmon in parts of Alaska, scientists say.Large numbers of salmon died prematurely in some Alaskan rivers in July according to local reports, and scientists believe the cause could be the unprecedented heatwave that gripped the state last month."Climate change is here in Alaska. We are seeing it. We are feeling it. And our salmon are dying because of it," said Stephanie Quinn-Davidson, a biologist specialising in salmon and the director of the Yukon Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, in a Facebook post.> 200 miles of river. Dead chum consistently along entire stretch. None had spawned. 850 counted, many more missed. Likely ruled out mining, disease/parasites. All signs point to heat stress. Sad to see. Hoping this is not the new normal. climatechange salmon yukonriver alaska pic.twitter.com/zAHWSgy3pg> > — Steph Quinn-Davidson (@SalmonStephAK) > > July 29, 2019
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| White House to Proceed With Ending Some Foreign Aid Payments Posted: 17 Aug 2019 12:36 PM PDT ![White House to Proceed With Ending Some Foreign Aid Payments]( "White House to Proceed With Ending Some Foreign Aid Payments") (Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration will move forward within days with a plan to cancel certain foreign aid payments authorized by Congress, setting up a fight with lawmakers opposed to the move.A senior administration official confirmed that the so-called rescissions package would be announced early next week.Some of the funding being zeroed out was for projects like installing solar panels in the Caribbean and creating safe spaces in Ireland for people upset about Brexit, said the administration official, who declined to be identified discussing plans not yet made public. Unspent funds for certain climate-related projects in Asia and Africa are also being targeted for elimination. CNN reported Saturday that the move would take aim at funding for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as the United Nations for certain peace-keeping operations in the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.The official said that Congress during the Trump administration has funded State and USAID at about $12 billion above the president's budget requests, and that the rescission package would return some of that excess back to the budget.Republican lawmakers who are typically Trump allies, notably Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, this week urged the president to reconsider "in the strongest possible terms" after word of the possible rescissions was reported."We share your concern about our mounting national debt, which in itself creates security risks to the country," Graham and Representative Hal Rogers of Kentucky said in a letter to Trump. "However, it has been reported that this proposal makes sweeping and indiscriminate cuts without regard to national security impacts."(Updates throughout with detail.)\--With assistance from Jordan Fabian.To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Steve GeimannFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Cal Fire said Tubbs Fire wasn’t caused by PG&E. Victims win the right to sue utility anyway Posted: 16 Aug 2019 05:00 PM PDT  Victims of the deadly Tubbs Fire in 2017 won the right to pursue lawsuits against PG&E; Corp. on Friday in spite of state investigators' declaration that the utility wasn't to blame for the fire.
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| DNA leads to arrest in another Florida rape case from 1980s Posted: 16 Aug 2019 01:52 PM PDT  For the second time in a year, authorities in a south Florida community have used DNA evidence to identify and arrest a suspect in a decades-old rape case. Timothy Norris, 60, is charged in the knifepoint rape of a Florida woman at her home in 1983, Coral Springs police spokesman Tyler Reik said Friday. Authorities found Norris serving time for bank robbery at a West Virginia federal prison, Reik said.
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| Venezuelan exodus may soon double, triggering a bigger regional crisis | Opinion Posted: 16 Aug 2019 12:56 PM PDT  One of the things that surprised me the most during a lengthy interview with Juan Guaidó, the Venezuelan National Assembly president who is recognized by the United States and more than 50 countries as Venezuela's legitimate leader, was his forecast that the number of Venezuelan exiles may "easily" reach 8 million by next year. It's a mindboggling figure, because it would be twice the 4 million exiles that, according to a recent United Nations report, have already fled the country since dictator Nicolás Maduro took office five years ago. Eight million people would amount to 25 percent of Venezuela's population.
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